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00:01What is the emergency?
00:02Oh, my God, my God!
00:04An internationally renowned hairdresser
00:07was found stabbed outside a home in L.A.
00:09This looks like a robbery that turned into a murder.
00:13That was the worst day of my life.
00:16What am I going to do?
00:17We're going to do everything in our power
00:19to find out who did this.
00:21There's home surveillance cameras around the home.
00:23If she had come home slightly earlier,
00:25they could have been looking at a double homicide.
00:28I'm definitely worried for this man.
00:29This is .
00:30Our hope was that it would lead us to our killer.
00:34I was shocked.
00:35What do you know about murder?
00:37My brother's killer.
00:39Sitting with our family.
00:41It's evil beyond comprehension.
01:14When we first started to dive into the story of people,
01:17it really seemed like something out of a Hollywood movie.
01:20The glitz and glamour and scandalous sex.
01:24But the most shocking part of the story
01:26is the villain at the center of it all.
01:35In 2017, Fabio Sementilli and his family,
01:38they were living in Woodland Hills,
01:40which is a really wealthy suburb of Los Angeles.
01:46Fabio was the vice president of education for Wella,
01:50which is a hair product company.
01:52Oh my God, this is awesome!
01:56Ah!
01:58Fabio was a lot of fun.
01:59He was exciting to be around.
02:02He started calling himself Big Daddy
02:04because he just embraced exactly who he was.
02:08He would just spend so much time laughing.
02:10He had this big, big laugh.
02:13How's everybody doing tonight?
02:14Woo!
02:18To Fabio's family is everything.
02:20He always made you feel like you were so important.
02:26He was living this wonderful life in Los Angeles,
02:29but Fabio came from really humble beginnings in Toronto.
02:34You know, his family were Italian immigrants.
02:37My parents immigrated from Italy.
02:40I was four, and my sister Marella was eight months old,
02:45and Fabio was born and raised in Toronto.
02:49We have family throughout Italy,
02:52and a lot of them are hairdressers,
02:54and Fabio was very influenced by them.
02:57He said to my mom one day,
02:59that's what I want to do.
03:01I want to be a hairdresser.
03:03My sister started a salon called Modeli Hair Design in Toronto,
03:09and Fabio started working there.
03:13The way he handled the scissor,
03:15he would cut with such style,
03:17and he could create any shape with a head of hair.
03:21Upon winning competitions,
03:22he started to make a name for himself.
03:24And so, you know, the word gets out,
03:26this guy's really good.
03:27And in Toronto, you start to make connections.
03:30I remember one time he called me,
03:33and he's like, I'm here with Gordon Ramsay,
03:36and he was doing his hair.
03:39In the 1990s, his reputation is skyrocketing,
03:42and he needs help at his salon,
03:45and he ends up hiring Monica Crestantini,
03:48the makeup artist and model.
03:52They soon fell in love and got married,
03:56and had two daughters, Jessica and Isabella.
04:00Fabio loved his children.
04:02He loved his wife.
04:04They looked like they were good together.
04:07You could just see how much they loved each other.
04:11I still have memories of them dancing.
04:15You could just tell that there was so much love there.
04:20He was doing hair in the salon,
04:22and then he got noticed by the bigger brand names,
04:26like the L'Oreal's and the Walla's of the world.
04:28And he ended up going with Walla,
04:30becoming the vice president of education.
04:32He was excited about it,
04:34and he knew where he belonged,
04:37helping stylists learn and grow,
04:39mentoring people.
04:41In 2007, Fabio, Monica,
04:43and their two daughters moved to Los Angeles,
04:45so Fabio can take on the new role.
04:47Luigi, his son from a previous marriage,
04:50stays back in Toronto.
04:51But Fabio travels back and forth often to see him.
04:55Fabio was working with the hairstylists,
04:58promoting the business.
05:00He would do celebrities like Jennifer Lopez,
05:03Jennifer Love Hewitt,
05:05a lot of movie stars that he did hair for.
05:09Fabio had achieved the dream,
05:11a lucrative career, and a loving family.
05:13But then, in 2017,
05:15it all comes to a violent end.
05:18What is the emergency?
05:20Oh, my dad!
05:21My dad!
05:22Okay, what's going on with your dad?
05:24My dad is outside,
05:25and he's bleeding,
05:26and everything, and he's...
05:28He won't wake up!
05:30I'm all alone.
05:31My mom is on my way home.
05:33The 911 call was Isabelle Cimentelli.
05:36She was 16 years old.
05:38Her dad was slumped over in the backyard.
05:41There was a lot of blood.
05:42She was out of breath,
05:43and she was advised to try to give care to her dad.
05:47Get close to him.
05:48Okay, okay.
05:49And try to wake him up.
05:50Dad!
05:51Please, Dad!
05:52No, I'm...
05:53Dad!
05:55I'm shaking...
05:55I'm shaking him.
05:58While she's on the phone,
06:00her mother, Monica Cimentelli,
06:01comes home and finds Isabella and Fabio
06:04in the backyard.
06:06Police arrive on the scene,
06:07and it's pretty clear immediately
06:09that Fabio Cimentelli is dead.
06:16So they contact LAPD's Van Nuys Division,
06:20homicide detectives.
06:21When we got there,
06:22it was dark outside.
06:24It was a nice home in a nice community,
06:27a larger home,
06:29ranch-style with the second story.
06:31We observed the decedent,
06:33Fabio Cimentelli,
06:34by the pool in the backyard.
06:36There was a lot of blood.
06:38Fabio's body was positioned
06:40in sort of a fetal position,
06:42right next to the chair where he was sitting.
06:45He was basically face down.
06:48Knees were bent as if he was sitting
06:50and fell forward.
06:52Multiple stab wounds to the neck area,
06:55the chest and the heart area,
06:57and also a wound on the leg.
06:59There were seven stab wounds altogether.
07:02Mostly all of them were fatal.
07:04So he bled out pretty quick.
07:06It appeared kind of a surprise attack.
07:10I call it a blitz attack.
07:14Not long after Jessica,
07:16Fabio's other daughter, who was 18,
07:18comes home.
07:19They take Monica as well as
07:22Fabio's two daughters to the neighbors.
07:24We had members of our crisis response,
07:26a team that were out at the scene comforting them.
07:29They were all upset.
07:30It was obviously traumatic,
07:32so we wanted to make sure
07:33they were well taken care of.
07:34We did a walk throughout the property.
07:37Inside the kitchen,
07:38there was a large amount of blood on the floor,
07:41countertops, blood droplets.
07:43There was also a jug of vinegar
07:46that was in the kitchen sink.
07:47We assumed that maybe there was some attempt
07:49to clean up the crime scene,
07:50although obviously not a good job.
07:53Based on the droplets
07:55that were inside of the kitchen,
07:57we believed that did not emanate
07:59from Fabio Cimentelli.
08:01Blood is slippery.
08:03Most people that kill are not prepared for that,
08:06and so they end up cutting themselves
08:08in the process.
08:10It appeared as if someone was bleeding
08:11and had walked through the area.
08:14We believed that we had a mixture of blood.
08:18Every bit of blood that's there
08:20from all those different rooms,
08:22it goes to the lab,
08:23and the scientists figure out,
08:25whose blood does this belong to?
08:28Upon walking further through the house,
08:30we discovered that there was a bedroom in the back
08:33that we learned was a master bedroom.
08:35Drawers had been pulled out,
08:37stuff overturned,
08:38like somebody had gone through everything.
08:41There appeared to be some sort of ransacking
08:43that had happened,
08:44potentially from a burglary or robbery
08:46that had occurred.
08:48There was currency in US,
08:52euros and Canadian dollars
08:53that appeared to be taken from a cabinet,
08:56some costume jewelry,
08:58and there were some gold coins
09:00that had been taken.
09:02Outside the house,
09:04there were no signs of forced entry.
09:05It appeared as though
09:06maybe a door was left open or unlocked.
09:10Investigators noticed
09:11that there's home surveillance cameras
09:12around the Sementilli home.
09:15The security cameras
09:17appear to be a newer-style cameras
09:19that were mounted
09:20to the outside surfaces of the house.
09:22Monica advised us
09:24that the DVR for the camera system
09:26was located in the garage on the cabinet.
09:28To the right side of the sub-panel box,
09:31there was a set of wires that were exposed,
09:34so we knew that we were missing the box.
09:37The recording device
09:38isn't the only thing missing from the garage.
09:40The detectives noticed
09:41that there are also no vehicles parked inside.
09:43When we talked with Monica,
09:45she advised us
09:46that her husband's Porsche 911 was missing.
09:50The Porsche was put into our system
09:53as armed and dangerous stolen vehicle.
09:57Our hope was that
09:58it would lead us to our killer.
10:02After the police search the home,
10:04they go over to talk to Monica
10:05and her two daughters,
10:07Jessica and Isabella.
10:09We interviewed Monica.
10:10She was upset.
10:11Trying to catch a breath.
10:13Very emotional.
10:15Monica?
10:16Very sorry that we have to meet like this, okay?
10:20Be able to speak with us
10:21and get through this?
10:22Yeah?
10:24Monica explains that Isabella
10:25went to school that morning
10:26while Fabio, Jessica, and Monica
10:28were all at the house.
10:31We were all there.
10:32We were making lunch.
10:34We were making lunch.
10:35We were making lunch.
10:35That's about 1.13 when you guys
10:37started making lunch.
10:38And then, uh,
10:39I brought the computer
10:40and applied.
10:41We were making lunch.
10:42We left.
10:43We were making lunch.
10:46We were making lunch.
10:49We were making lunch.
10:57We were making lunch.
10:57So she went to go to the babysitting.
11:02What time did you get back around?
11:04Um, it was 5 o'clock.
11:07I heard Bella.
11:08What?
11:09They didn't know me.
11:10OK, you came home.
11:12You didn't know anything
11:14at that point, correct?
11:15No.
11:15And what did Bella say?
11:17Oh.
11:27So you both were on him trying to move him?
11:34We're going to do everything in our power to find out who did this.
11:48That night, when I was in Toronto, a detective called my sister, Morella, and said, you know, your brother has
11:56been murdered.
11:58Yeah.
12:01I got to my sister's house. Morella said, Fabio died. Someone killed him.
12:10My mother comes, and we told her about Fabio, and her blood-curdling screams were so loud, so deep. It
12:20was a mess.
12:23That broke the Cimentelli family to the core.
12:28January 23rd is my birthday. My parents came over to have some cake, and so we were just about to
12:35do the cake.
12:36I got a phone call, and I just dropped the phone. I don't even know. I fell to my knees.
12:45I felt like somebody had just punched the wind right out of me.
12:51That was probably the worst day of my life.
13:00Based on the information provided by the family during those interviews, as far as the timeframe goes,
13:05we knew that the murder occurred somewhere between 4 and 5 o'clock.
13:10Because there was ransacking going on in the master bedroom, bloodstains throughout the house.
13:18We thought, this looks like a robbery that went sideways, and it turned into a murder.
13:26An internationally renowned Toronto hairdresser was found beaten and stabbed outside a home in LA.
13:32Police have identified him as 49-year-old Fabio Cimentelli.
13:36I spoke with Eden Sassoon tonight. She's the daughter of another industry icon, Vidal Sassoon.
13:42He really stood out. A man who truly cared.
13:47Excuse my friend, he gave a .
13:49It made a difference.
13:52I lost my mentor. I lost the guy that was always there for me.
13:58And losing that was hard, because I knew the value of it.
14:02I knew that you can't have that with anybody.
14:06That was one of the hardest days of my life.
14:09Just realizing that he's gone.
14:13In the days after the murder, detectives continue their investigation,
14:16and canvass the neighborhood for any evidence of who killed Fabio Cimentelli.
14:21The community that they lived in was an HOA community.
14:25The HOA had purchased cameras that monitored traffic that came in and out of the neighborhood.
14:30Our unit recovered all that video.
14:34So, we could see Jessica driving away in her red Ford Mustang.
14:39Approximately 30 minutes later, we see two men running southbound down Oakdale,
14:46going towards the Cimentelli house.
14:49They have hooded sweatshirts on.
14:51The hoods are over their head, and the drawstrings are cinched tight,
14:55to where you have a hole about this big that they're looking through as they're running up the street.
15:00Odd. Very odd.
15:03This is not a heavily traveled area.
15:05They're not just out there casually working out.
15:08They're moving. They're moving quickly.
15:11So, we believe we were looking at two people that were involved in this case.
15:15The next critical piece that we have on video is when we see the black Porsche 911 drive away.
15:22Right before Isabella got home somewhere around 5 o'clock.
15:28If the killers had not left when they did, there was a very good chance that it would have been
15:33a double homicide,
15:34because Isabella would have arrived just when her father was getting murdered.
15:41Based on what we had at the scene, we investigated this case as a potential burglary.
15:47And around that time, there was a burglary crew that was operating called the Knock Knock Burglars.
15:53And there's this new video just in. It shows a Knock Knock Burglary crew at work in Burbank.
15:58There were thousands of these guys.
16:00There wasn't like a handful of suspects that were operating a burglary ring.
16:03There were thousands of them. And they were loosely connected. They were all gang members.
16:07The suspects will go to a house, usually in an affluent neighborhood, very wealthy.
16:14And they'll go to the front door and they'll knock on the door, see if anybody's home.
16:18And if nobody answers the door, they'll go around to the back and then go into the house and basically
16:24search and steal valuable items.
16:27Just days ago, the LAPD announced a task force to crack down on so-called Knock Knock Burglaries.
16:32The Knock Knock Burglars were very, very active in Woodland Hills, the same neighborhood that Fabio Cimentelli was found murdered.
16:40Police believe that the two guys in the hoodies, there was a very good chance that they could have been
16:44members of this Knock Knock crew.
16:46And then police get a big break a couple of days later.
16:51We received a call from a resident in a neighborhood that this car has been parked in the neighborhood for,
16:57you know, several days and hasn't moved.
17:00And they just wanted to report it to the police.
17:04This Porsche didn't have plates on it.
17:06When they ran the VIN, that's when they found out that this was Fabio's stolen Porsche.
17:14So that car gets recovered.
17:16It gets taken to our crime lab.
17:18Blood was discovered on the driver's side door.
17:22There was blood on the door handle.
17:24There was blood on the center console.
17:27There was blood on the foot pedals.
17:29And so all of the blood was collected and sent to serology.
17:34Our hope was that blood evidence is going to be from the killer.
17:48The memorial service happened in Los Angeles.
17:53So my mother, my sister and I flew down from Toronto.
17:58Monica set up his picture, a big daddy hat, and she had this memorial set on a chair.
18:07It was the saddest thing you've ever seen to walk into that house and not see Fabio.
18:14It was so heartbreaking.
18:17But we were there for Monica.
18:21I just felt so much sadness for Monica.
18:25To know that her daughter found him.
18:29And to know that her husband's now gone.
18:32A husband who she loved and adored.
18:41Detectives believe that the blood inside the house and in the Porsche belongs to one or both of the perpetrators.
18:50On February 13th, three weeks after the murder, the DNA results confirm their suspicion.
18:56My partner gets a phone call and an email explaining that there's been a CODIS hit in the case.
19:02It says that the name attached to it is Robert Baker.
19:07Who's Robert Baker?
19:09Why is his blood in Fabio Cimentelli's house?
19:14We start researching Robert Baker.
19:17Robert Baker is a 55-year-old male, lives in Canoga Park, which is just a few miles away from
19:22where the crime occurred.
19:23He is a former porn actor.
19:27He had been married five times.
19:30He is a registered sex offender.
19:32He was arrested at one point because he was having sex with an underage person.
19:36He was having sex with his stepdaughter, who was 15.
19:44So police know that Baker is one of their suspects, but the problem is, who's the other suspect?
19:49Who is seen jogging up to Fabio Cimentelli's home?
19:53So we started to follow Robert Baker.
19:57We put surveillance on him to find out what he's doing.
20:07Their goal during this whole thing was to see who Baker met with to see if we could locate our
20:12additional suspect.
20:14What we found was Baker meeting with Monica.
20:20Based on what they witnessed, it would appear Baker and Monica Cimentelli are in the midst of a romantic relationship.
20:28To find out that Baker is out and about with Monica, it was absolutely shocking.
20:36Armed with information about Monica's secret affair with Robert Baker, detectives go back to Monica's house under the guise of
20:42doing another walkthrough.
20:49We told her the purpose was to re-walk the crime scene, but the real reason was to go talk
20:54to her and see what she's going to say about Rob Baker.
20:58Is she going to be honest with us?
21:00So you walked through here?
21:02Yeah.
21:03Now, who arrived next as far as family and friends?
21:07Who do we call next?
21:08We called Deb to get Jessica here.
21:13And my friend Elise.
21:15Who's Elise?
21:16She's one of my gym friends.
21:18We started asking, you have all these gym friends, you know, can you tell us about them?
21:22Are there any men involved in this, in this group?
21:24Who else is part of that group?
21:25Oh my gosh.
21:28Let's see.
21:29Guys anchors.
21:30Paula.
21:32Rob, he's our lead director for a racquetball.
21:35I was in a racquetball league.
21:37What's Rob's last name?
21:38I think it's Baker.
21:39I think his last name might be Baker or something like that.
21:44It's like, okay.
21:47Surveillance has already shown that they're together.
21:49So, before Fabio's death, has Rob ever been here?
21:54No.
21:54Never been here before?
21:56No.
21:59Detectives want to know, like, is she lying because she's having an affair?
22:02Or is she lying because she's complicit in the death of Fabio?
22:06We did think that, okay, this could be a conspiracy between Monica, Robert, and the third unidentified suspect at this
22:15point in time.
22:16But all we had was, yeah, they're having an affair.
22:19That's it.
22:20We didn't have anything directly tying Monica into knowing about this murder.
22:26Maybe she didn't know anything about this.
22:29Detectives get a warrant, not only for her phone, but also for Robert Baker's phone.
22:34They want the cell phone information to find out where the two of them were at the time of the
22:38murders.
22:40Based on the first statement, we knew that Monica was down the street in Ventura Boulevard at Target.
22:48One of our detectives went out, recovered video.
22:50So here on the day of the murder on January 23rd, 2017, Monica Cimentelli came into the parking lot of
22:59this Target.
22:59What we discovered in analyzing it, getting the video enhanced as much as we could, we observed Monica pull into
23:07the parking lot.
23:08She has a very large black F-150 truck.
23:13It's very fuzzy, it's very far away, but you can see an image walking to Monica's car and you can
23:21see the passenger door open.
23:25We had to have it enhanced and it was very, very hard to see, but we see that somebody gets
23:30into Monica's car.
23:32And this is right before the murder.
23:33In order to determine the identity of the blurry figure, the investigators review security footage from the hour before Monica
23:40pulled into the parking lot.
23:42It's then that they see a familiar face walking out of the Target 10 minutes before Monica arrives.
23:49It was verified that Baker was in the same area at that same time when Monica was in the parking
23:55lot.
23:57So we come up to a conclusion that it was both of them meeting inside her black F-150 truck
24:03at the back of the parking lot.
24:07Those videos show that Monica and Rob Baker were at that Target parking lot just prior to the murder.
24:14Like it's probably the last thing Rob Baker did before he went and parked the car and they started jogging
24:19up the street.
24:22And then Monica drives around the parking lot to the front part of Target and exits her car and goes
24:29into the store.
24:30That's when we start following her from the video cameras from inside the store.
24:35We follow her throughout the store and she is glued to her phone.
24:40Right. And as she walks out of the store, she's watching the phone intently, almost walks into an anti-theft
24:47barrier on the way out of the store.
24:48Once they have the cell phone data back, one of the things that they could tell is what she was
24:53doing on her phone when she leaves the store at Target.
24:58We discovered that she was monitoring her home surveillance camera, literally watching it in real time.
25:06We believe she was basically using her surveillance system to watch Baker's back and make sure nobody else came home.
25:23In addition to the affair with Robert Baker, detectives discover another motive.
25:27They learn through Fabio's employer that just months earlier, Fabio and Monica had signed him up for a life insurance
25:32policy.
25:34At that point in time, we were in contact with Monica and it became more and more about life insurance.
25:41Fabio's life insurance policy was worth $1.6 million.
25:46When we learned about this life insurance, we put a hold on the life insurance money.
25:52Didn't make Monica very happy.
25:56Monica continuously called about the money being released.
26:00Not like, where's the killer? Who killed my husband?
26:03I want the money, the money, show me the money.
26:05Hoping to identify the other man jogging towards Fabio's house on the day of the murder, detectives hold off on
26:10making any arrests.
26:12But finally, police decided to make a move.
26:19Robert Baker's blood is in the house.
26:22And that, along with Monica's lies, gave us probable cause to make arrests.
26:32So we secured the warrant for the arrest of Robert Baker and Monica Cimentelli.
26:40We had surveillance on both of them.
26:43And so our plan was, for when they were together, to have patrol officers arrest them under the ruse that
26:50their car was stolen.
26:51Probably just to screw up, but we have procedure and we have to handcuff you guys, put you in the
26:57back of the police car while we sort it out.
27:00This is a first for me.
27:02I'm going to wake up.
27:03Oh my God.
27:05Close the doors for the police car.
27:07They're in a cage.
27:09We had the police car wired with cameras and microphones.
27:14This is just, I've never seen anything like that.
27:18At that point, we run them over the radio for wants and warrants for them to hear.
27:23Number one, Robert Baker.
27:27Number two, Veronica, Sonia Cimentelli.
27:31Order for 187 PC.
27:33First degree murder for the murder of Fabio Cimentelli.
27:39What the ****?
27:41What the ****?
27:44That was done to stimulate conversation between the two of them.
27:47And boy, did they talk.
27:51Oh God.
27:54Listen, listen, listen.
27:56Don't talk.
27:56I know, I know.
27:57Listen, listen.
27:58Don't talk.
27:58They start to whisper.
28:00However, we were able to pick up the whispering.
28:03Stay, stay, stay the protocol.
28:07Somebody did this to me.
28:14When you get arrested and your statement is someone talked and stick the protocol,
28:19that's not normal behavior for someone that's innocent.
28:23That's when we knew, okay, this is great evidence that we're gathering.
28:29After that, they're arrested for real and they are taken down to Van Nuys Station for interviews.
28:35You good by Rob, Robert?
28:38Robert is good.
28:39Okay.
28:40I interview both Baker and Monica.
28:44Robert Baker waived his rights.
28:46He didn't ask for a lawyer.
28:48And your birthday one time?
28:49I'm old.
28:50I'm older.
28:52You guys are both older than me.
28:55We do a lot of small talk at the beginning of the interview.
28:58Then we start confronting him with the evidence.
29:01We found your blood in the scene.
29:02We found your blood in the kitchen.
29:05We found your blood in the bedroom.
29:07We found your blood on the driver's side of the Porsche.
29:11And we found Fabio's blood on the brake pedal.
29:14That's how you're here.
29:15That's why you're here.
29:17F***.
29:23And we want to know how that happened.
29:27That's a good f***.
29:29How would your blood...
29:31I don't know, man.
29:31I don't f*** know.
29:33I'm serious.
29:36I definitely need a lawyer.
29:38What's that?
29:39I definitely need a lawyer for this man.
29:41This is f***.
29:44Once Baker asked for a lawyer, police can no longer ask him any questions about the crime
29:49or the second elusive man seen in the security footage.
29:53He shuts down.
29:54Okay.
29:55No problem.
29:57Monica was a little different.
29:58Can I have a seat here?
30:01Monica immediately asked for a lawyer.
30:03I don't think anybody should be here.
30:05We have, so...
30:05Okay.
30:06Well...
30:07I think I do need...
30:09I do want someone in here, though.
30:11Okay, so...
30:11What do you mean...
30:12Like a lawyer or something.
30:14We legally cannot ask any more questions.
30:17We can tell her something, but we can't ask anything about it.
30:21We told her, your boyfriend Rob Baker's blood is all over the crime scene.
30:26He's the one that killed your husband.
30:28For certain, Robert murdered your husband.
30:30We spoke to Robert about that.
30:32So, that's done and we know that.
30:35Then Monica blurbs out,
30:38You know, detectives, I know how Rob's blood got into my house.
30:44I don't believe that Rob did that.
30:48And the only other thing I can think of that his DNA would be in my house
30:52is probably when I cracked him in the hand when we played racquetball.
30:56It's probably on my racket.
30:57It's probably on my shoes.
30:59It's probably on the gym courts.
31:01And then she says, I gave him a towel and he soaked up the blood in that towel.
31:06And I brought the towel home.
31:08And I even showed it to my husband and he said, don't bother washing it.
31:11I will get rid of it.
31:14And I didn't see it after that.
31:16And that's the only thing I can think of.
31:19Okay.
31:20I don't think anybody's going to believe that, but hey, it is what it is.
31:26At that point, Monica and Rob are arrested for the murder of Babio Cimentelli.
31:36The detective called my sister's house.
31:39Said, we arrested Monica and Robert Baker for the murder of your brother Fabio.
31:45We were all shocked to the core.
31:49The wife of a murdered Woodland Hills hairdresser is now accused in his death and police say her lover is
31:55the killer.
31:56It was just this past Sunday in Canada when Monica accepted a lifetime achievement award on her husband's behalf.
32:03When they gave him the lifetime achievement award.
32:06We go on stage.
32:10She's holding me Monica and I'm holding her.
32:14She's crying.
32:15I'm crying.
32:15I'm I'm losing it.
32:20That was Sunday.
32:22Tuesday, she gets arrested.
32:25Man, I was I was shocked.
32:27Oh, my God, she did it.
32:29And she's crying like that.
32:31What's wrong with this woman?
32:33What's wrong with it?
32:36She grieved with us.
32:38She held us tight.
32:40I never in my wildest dreams thought his wife.
32:44But when she was arrested with her boyfriend, I saw these pictures of this Robert Baker.
32:50It was just another shocker.
32:53Like, what?
32:55Because I remember seeing this person in the backyard of Fabio's house after the funeral.
33:03Monica and this guy, they're talking very close to each other.
33:08They must be good friends.
33:09My mother says strange.
33:12Then I put two and two together.
33:14Monica had my brothers kill her.
33:17Sitting with our family, with her stepson, with her daughters.
33:23How do you do that?
33:25It's evil beyond comprehension for me.
33:32Monica's arrest drives a wedge through the family.
33:34Her two daughters, Jessica and Isabella, choose to stand by their mom and insist on her innocence.
33:39It was hard to see Isabella and Jessica protect their mom.
33:44They didn't see everything like I did.
33:47But hopefully one day, they face reality and look at everything.
33:53I can't imagine what that is like to be Jessica or Isabella.
33:59That was her mom.
34:01But I was going to stand up for Fab.
34:04And I was wanting the truth to come out.
34:10The main evidence that we gathered against Robert Baker was pretty simple.
34:15His blood at the scene.
34:17But Monica was a little bit more difficult.
34:19We had to prove that she was part of the conspiracy.
34:23Because of the COVID pandemic and legal maneuvering, the trial dig gets pushed back for years.
34:29During the long wait, Fabio's family starts to worry that Monica may never face justice.
34:35During those years, we lost our dear mom.
34:41Her last words in her mouth was Fabio.
34:45And I knew why she said Fabio.
34:48She said, be there.
34:49Be his voice.
34:52Six years pass.
34:54And they finally are going to take Monica and Baker to trial.
35:00Even though they still have not found that other suspect.
35:05In July of 2023, the case was ready to go to trial.
35:09Put Robert Baker, Monica Simentelli, both on trial together.
35:13And in a surprise, Robert Baker decides he wants to plead guilty.
35:18Her client wishes to plead guilty to all charges and admit all allegations and special circumstances.
35:24Is this correct?
35:25That is correct.
35:26Is that what you wish to do, sir?
35:27Yes, sir.
35:31My sister and I never thought we would finally see the day that justice would be served.
35:36You took our beautiful mother's selflessness and our amazing father's life down with you.
35:43He was given life without the possibility of parole.
35:47And that's it.
35:48Baker knew his goose was cooked.
35:50He pleads guilty to the charges.
35:52He doesn't ask for leniency.
35:54He takes the total rap and he refuses to implicate Monica.
36:00It seems that Monica may actually be able to beat the case.
36:03But then investigators get a breakthrough.
36:07After I retired, fresh eyes looked at the case and found a very, very simple thing that I missed.
36:24While reviewing the security camera footage of Robert Baker on the day of the murder, detectives notice he's driving a
36:292016 Nissan Versa.
36:32But no one had ever checked to see what happened to the car after the murder.
36:38After the case was given to a new set of detectives, somebody thought of doing a complete workup on the
36:43car.
36:44And lo and behold, a guy by the name of Christopher Austin was given a ticket an hour after the
36:51murder in that rental car.
36:55Christopher Austin's father and Robert Baker were friends.
36:59Christopher Austin called him unk.
37:02Since the time of the murder, Christopher Austin had moved to the state of Washington.
37:07The LAPD detectives contact Washington State.
37:11They find Christopher Austin and they bring him in for questioning.
37:17We just need you to be truthful.
37:20Had Rob told you anything about what he wanted to do?
37:23He had been on his phone talking and texting.
37:26It seemed like he was getting all the information from her.
37:30And that's when he kind of started revealing all the whole plans.
37:33Like, remember this girl?
37:35I was like, what about it?
37:36How did he know that she was there? He was there.
37:43He said, what'd you do?
37:46I went first and said, he's in the back.
37:48One, two, three, open the door, one-handed.
37:53He said that right before you left, she had given you some coins.
37:58What was the value of those?
37:59It was $400 each.
38:02I didn't give up.
38:04So I was like, oh yeah, the hump gave me a couple coins.
38:06You know, I'll trade these in, pay some rent.
38:08I think I paid off my car faster or something like that.
38:12I didn't do anything except pay all my debts.
38:16Christopher Austin makes a deal with prosecutors and he pleads guilty to second-degree murder
38:21and get 16 years to life in prison.
38:25In order to get that sentence, he has to testify in court against Monica Sementilli.
38:31Monica's trial finally gets underway in January of 2025 and the star witness is Christopher Austin.
38:39Baker told me she's loaded, she wants him gone, she's gonna get paid.
38:45It was so horrific to watch.
38:48The worst thing in the world is to set up your daughter to find your dad that way.
38:55It was so heartbreaking.
38:58The prosecution rests and Baker is a star witness for the defense.
39:03And he takes the stand and he basically says that the reason why he killed Fabio
39:07was because he wanted Monica to himself and that Monica had nothing to do with it.
39:13Did she have anything to do with the planning or the execution of the plan to kill Fabio Sementilli?
39:22No.
39:24You're sure?
39:25Positive.
39:27After a 10-week trial, it's up to the jury whether they believe the prosecution's story or Baker's.
39:34We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Monica Sementilli guilty of the crime of murder in
39:40violation of penal code section 187A.
39:42A felony is charged in count one of the indictment.
39:47For them to plan something like this and then to think that in this day and age that you're gonna
39:51get away with it blows my mind.
39:55I will never get to accept all my life. A wife that he loved and cared for would murder you?
40:05Why? To be with Robert Baker? To start a new life with him? For money? Life insurance? Greed?
40:20There's a real sadness that still exists when people say his name or they talk about him because it was
40:27a life that was cut short.
40:31I think he had so much more to do and to give. And I think that hurts me too. To
40:38know that he wasn't finished.
40:41I want to be remembered for the relationships I've built. I want to be remembered for how maybe I've made
40:48people feel.
40:50My brother was just one amazing man that just had so much going for him.
40:58I want to remember him for what he did for us and his love for us.
41:06Fabio, I miss you. We love you.
41:25I'm out of here.
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